Say No
by Blue Remedy
Summary: A sad Lucy has taken to drinking away her problems, and Natsu is more worried than he'd like to admit. And, wait, why is it his fault?


EDIT: thank you to the people who told me this uploaded wrong the first time bless u (throws my affection)

* * *

Natsu sighed.

"Hit me again, Mira."

To say he was annoyed would be a criminal understatement, but since Lucy was currently trying to drink herself silly, Natsu retained his forced composure.

His partner sat slumped uncomfortably over the bar counter, only her elbows keeping her from smacking her forehead on the wooden surface.

And he felt bad. Annoyed, but bad.

As much as he hated baby-sitting drunks, Natsu could plainly see that Lucy was hurting. So he sat on the stool next to her, diligently monitoring her alcohol intake and creepy guys who might talk to her.

"Why am I such an idiot…?" She whined.

"You're not'n idiot, Lucy." Rolling his eyes, Natsu sipped at his cider. They'd been at this since nine, and it was… almost midnight now. All she did was make sad faces and drink. Talking to her hadn't been an option before, (as drunks were a volatile sort) but now his curiosity had grown, and really, he just wanted to know who the hell made Lucy sad.

"Oi, Lu…" He waited until she looked up at him with bleary eyes. "Tell me what happened." Simple commands were better with drunks.

"Why would-" Sniffle. "Why would you care?"

Natsu frowned. "Well, you may not know it, Lucy, but I _do_care about you." He said, a light tone to his voice as he patted her back.

"…I broke a date." She grumbled. Natsu chortled.

"Another? That's like, the third one this week!"

Lucy shot him a glare, sitting up straight and downing a shot before exhaling loudly.

"You think I don't know that?! He was so nice too- and cute! But I told him I couldn't as soon as I got to the date." She sounded like she was talking to herself again. "I don't even know why, but there was this awful nagging feeling and I…I…"

Natsu cocked his head as Lucy trembled in, what he dreaded, was fury.

"This is _all your fault_, Natsu!" Shouting, she jabbed a finger at him.

"Whoa, whoa, what did I do?!" He countered, putting up his hands in surrender to his inebriated friend. She huffed, big tears plipping into her eyes.

"Natsu, do you like me?" She cried, making said boy choke on his cider. He coughed violently. Who did she think she was- pulling a 180 on him like that?!

"S-Sure, Lucy." He'd say anything to make her less upset, but he was a bit more preoccupied with the liquid in his lungs.

"Waaah! I knew it!" Lucy shouted to the rafters, raising her arms and spinning around in the bar stool. Natsu smirked; she was a real weirdo.

In her stupor, Lucy, leaning a little too far one way, lost her balance. Natsu caught her, luckily, as she slumped against him, grabbing onto his scarf like a life preserver.

"So, so," He could smell the liquor on her breath. "If you like me, you'll kiss me, yeah? I'll let you take a peek at my breasts if you do~"

…A kiss? A kiss was nothing, right? Meaningless, really- like when Asuka dared them to kiss…

"Well, if it'll make you feel better, I guess…"

But before Natsu could consider how to go about Lucy's kissey-kissey faces, Mira gave Natsu a look that said: I will throttle you if you so much as look at her don't _test_ me.

Natsu's cheeks stained red.

"N-No way! You r breath stinks!"

Smooth… But at least his conscience was clear.

Shoving her back onto her own stool, Natsu crossed his arms defiantly. Being drunk, Natsu supposed, Lucy wasn't in the right state of mind for kissing. It'd be bad of him to accept her advances…

"Bu-But you said you liked me!" She warbled, making Natsu feel… Something. Regret? Huh…

"…M-Mira, get me another –hic- uh, another drink…" She murmured solemnly. Mira, who had been watching them this entire time (mostly to make sure Natsu didn't upset her more), shot Natsu a penetrating death-glare.

"Sorry, Lucy, but I think you've had enough. It's late, you should get home." She said sweetly, all the while having her eyes locked with Natsu. He shrank under the woman's gaze.

"I'm sure _Natsu_ would take you home, Lucy. He'll take good care of you- why, who knows what might happen if he didn't." She said, equally sweet, but with venom on her tongue upon closer inspection. None of which phased Lucy, who nodded passively.

Grunting, Natsu scooped up Lucy's potato-sack body stuck his tongue out at Mira over his shoulder before he left.

Mira giggled, hoping Natsu wasn't going to be digging his own grave tonight.

…

God, she was heavy.

"Mou, Natsu… Quit it- I'm supposed to be mad at you…"

"Gladly." He put simply, dropping her on her bed with a bounce. Natsu sat down on the floor next to her, almost eye-to-eye with Lucy, holding a quizzical look on his face.

"Why're you –hic- lookin' at me like that, Nahhhshhhuuu…?"

The boy hummed in thought. "I wanna know why you're so upset, Lu. You said it was my fault."

Her eyes widened considerably under his watch, and Natsu knew he had her cornered. She rolled over, stuffing her face in a pillow.

"Don't wanna talk to you…" Grumbling, she burrowed into her sheets. Natsu bit his lip, smelling the almost-tears coming from Lucy's plushy form.

"Lucy…"

This felt wrong. His partner was supposed to be smiling and loud, like he was, but in her own, weirdo-Lucy way. But now, neither of them were smiling, and it put a pit in his stomach. His head foggier, his limbs heavier. His hands clenched around the edge of Lucy's mattress.

"Lucy, I'm your partner." He paused to lick his lips, and Lucy turned around to face him again. "And I trust you with all my troubles…"

She blinked away the liquid from her eyes, allowing him to continue.

"Don't you trust me, Lucy?"

She grasped his hand unexpectedly, fumbling to fold his larger hand with her smaller one.

"…Natsu, promise you'll say no to my next question…" She mumbled, staring at Natsu with bright eyes.

"A-Alright." She was holding his hand- what should he do? Did it matter? He didn't think so; she was so soft after all…

Lucy gathered up a shaky breath, squeezing his hand hard. Whatever she was going to say, it looked like it was taking a lot of effort on her part. Natsu could only hope she wasn't in trouble…

"Do you love me?"

First, he couldn't move.

"…Eh?"

But then, he couldn't even see straight.

"No! You have to say no!" She protested. Natsu lurched away from the girl, sprawling out on the floor.

"You promised you'd say no! Just say it- say no!" She continued to holler at him, bunching up her blankets in her fists.

"Why?!" He blurted, angry that Lucy was being difficult, and trying to twist his words on top of it. But she didn't even stop to think.

"Because if you reject me then I can stop thinking about you! And I can stop losing sleep and breaking dates because I always compare every guy I meet to _you_!" She broke into sobs then, crumpling onto her own lap and shaking.

"So just- just say no. Say it. Please, Natsu, I can't go on like this… I'm emotionally drained…"

Natsu could've guessed that she was mostly sober by this point, but he didn't notice. No, what he _did_notice was the heavy rise and fall of his chest, and also something much greater: that he related to what she called problems.

He thought of her all the time. Lucy was the person he wanted to fall asleep next to every day. He dreamed about, stayed up late at night wondering what would happen if she fell in love with some guy. He'd imagine horrible scenarios of Lucy getting whisked off by and stranger and leaving the guild.

The scenes he pictured were horrible, but the stories played out in his mind nonetheless, because he wanted to see the ending- where he would fit in there. It was like watching a tornado; you know you should look away and get to safety, but something inside you wants to see what destruction will unfold in the torrent's wake.

Lucy was his torrent.

And he was an innocent victim of her rush.

"What if I don't wanna say no?"

The words tumbled from his mouth without his consent. Gaining twin blushes simultaneously, the two tensed.

Did he really say that? Did he really insinuate that he wanted to be in love with her?

"Wha?! Y-You can't mean that!" She bawled, tears flowing freely down her cheeks after her initial shock had gone.

Damn him. Damn love. None of this was fair- Lucy was crying and Natsu was a heap of uselessness on the floor.

"You know," she sniffled, "I don't think it would be so bad, being in love with you, I mean."

The fact of the matter was, what Lucy called problems, he called affection. Natsu loved to dream about going on missions with her, about waking up with her and Happy at his sides. His cat friend was probably getting sick of Natsu talking about her all the time, but other than that, Natsu enjoyed having Lucy so thoroughly wrapped up in his existence.

"That's good to hear, Lu." He said softly, smiling down at her as he tucked her back under the sheets. She yawned, willingly going along with it and snuggling back into her bed.

Why was he so calm? Natsu was positively elated. Lucy was in love with him! Well, drunken Lucy was in love with him, but it was a start! Perhaps he was just numb from the shock of it all.

As an afterthought, Natsu bent down and kissed her forehead, brushing the hair in front of her face away lovingly. Too easy, he thought. It was too easy to fall for her.

Collapsing on the couch, Natsu finally got what Lucy meant when she said being in love made her emotionally drained.

A goofy smile crawled its way onto his face.

"She's got me… She's got me good…"

Natsu knew he'd fallen hard for her. Man, he couldn't even say out loud how much he adored her. But as he stared up at Lucy's ceiling, the tingling feeling in his chest spreading, Natsu knew the truth of his situation- that she probably wouldn't remember any of this tomorrow.

…But if and when she ever asked him if he loved her again, one thing was for sure: he definitely wouldn't say no.


End file.
